Frantic Home Cook – Home cooking, Recipes, Healthy, Frugal

Well, dears, I come to you tonight trying to work through this cold-bronchitis-cough-chest-thing that the whole state seems to be fighting. But never fear! I will continue my series on why you should be planning your family’s meals. Tonight we’ll go over a few benefits just in case you weren’t convinced by my last post.

What you will gain:

• Time you previously wasted opening and closing cupboards in search of inspiration.
• Gas you’ll save by not running out to the grocery store and picking up what you need to make dinner. See? Who woulda thought menu planning would be ECO-FRIENDLY?
• Best of all, money since planning meals will allow you to shop for exactly what you’ll need rather than anything that grabs your fancy (and if someone’s grabbing your fancy at the store, you should be slapping them!) By sticking to the menu you designed, it will help cut out all impulse buying.

What you will lose:

• Frostbite that you get from staring for a half hour at a freezer that contains only a lonely Popsicle, ancient ice cubes and an unidentified piece of freezer-burned meat.
• Since you know what you’ll be having in a few weeks (you’re repeating your family’s favorites in your menu plan, right?), you’ll save a couple nights of cooking just by making double and freezing one for the next time that menu plan rolls around.
• Maybe a couple unwanted pounds as you order out less.
• The 3,487,219th time of hearing “What’s for dinner!?”

Hopefully, I’ve convinced you of why you need a menu plan. Next up, I’ll give you a few more options for menu planning. Until then, keep your nose warm!